Dating James Potter
by thejilyship
Summary: It was only supposed to be one date. She had said yes simply to make him stop asking her. She figured that they'd go on the date, he'd realize his mistake and then stop thinking that he fancied her and she could go on with her life, James Potter just a small, annoying, blimp in the past. That's not exactly how the events unfolded…
1. Chapter 1

She had said 'yes' simply to make him stop asking her. Not that he was as incessant as he'd been in the past, it was only ever when there was a Hogsmeade trip coming up, and even then he would only ask her once. She figured that they'd go on the date, he'd realize his mistake, stop thinking that he fancied her and she could go on with her life, James Potter just a small, annoying, blimp in the past. That's not exactly how the events unfolded…

**First date**

Location: Three Broomsticks, Hogsmeade, Scotland

Time: 11:47 am

Lily and James sat across from each other at a small booth in the back of the Three Broomsticks, both holding Butterbeers in their hands with a plate of chips between them. Lily pursed her lips and tapped her fingers against the side of her mug while James sat stock still on the other side of the table, looking anywhere but at her.

So far she had attempted to start six different conversations (two of which had had to do with Quidditch) with no luck. All he would give her were one word answers or non-committal grunts and frankly, she was getting quite bored. And of all the things she thought she would be on this date (annoyed, angry, frustrated, embarrassed) she hadn't even thought of a scenario in which she would be _bored_ while on a date with James Potter.

She reached out for another chip and sighed, inspecting James' face for any sort of reaction. There wasn't one. She sighed again, and pushed her hair behind her ear.

"Are you going to say anything?" Lily asked, trying not to sound mean. She may not fancy the bloke, but at the moment, she pitied him. "Or do anything entertaining? Lite someone on fire? Throw a dungbomb at a Slytherin? Flirt with the barmaid? What if I start snogging the nearest Hufflepuff? Will that make you say something?" James' eyes snapped to hers at the last suggestion, looking afraid that she might actually reach out and pull a Hufflepuff into the booth with them. Lily smirked, thankful for the reaction.

"I- you- Wh- Ergh." He dropped his head against the table, causing a bit of his untouched Butterbeer to slosh up over the side of his mug and spill onto the chips. Lily laughed and grabbed a napkin.

"You know, I was expecting this date to be a disaster." Lily said honestly, tossing the napkin and taking another sip of her own Butterbeer. "Just in an entirely different way." James rolled his head to the side and looked at her over the top of his glasses.

"I know." He muttered, half of his mouth still pressed against the table.

"That's two words." Lily smirked, "Things seem to be looking up." James smiled a bit and rolled his head back over.

"I don't normally crack under pressure." He said to his feet. Lily lent forward, resting her arms on the table, so she could hear what he was saying. "But I went in knowing that I was going to fail and I've never done that before."

"What do you mean?" Lily asked, encouraged by his use of a complete sentence.

"I mean," James picked his head up off the table and rested it on his fist instead. "I'm in a lose-lose situation right now because you've already made up your mind. If I try anyway, then I fail despite the fact that I tried. If I don't try and I fail, then I'll spend the rest of my life wondering what would have happened if I had tried. Even though," He sighed, and ran and hand through his hair. "We both know that nothing is going to happen if I try."

"So you're doing nothing?" Lily asked, picking up another chip, one of the drier ones. "What's that going to accomplish?"

James lent his head to the side and ran his hand along his jawline. "Why did you have to say 'yes'?" Lily laughed, thinking that this was a rhetorical question, but James just looked at her until she stopped.

"You have to know the answer to that." She said, tapping at her mug again. "You ask me out all the time. Ever since fifth year. I wanted it to stop so I said, 'yes.'"

"Why did you think that would work though?" He pressed. When she opened her mouth to answer, he started talking again, because this time, it was a rhetorical question. "Did you think I was going to go on a date with you, see you sitting across from me at a table eating chips, laughing and smiling and decide that the clenching of my stomach was just my imagination? That I was going to get to be close to you and convince myself that my heart wasn't actually beating too fast, that my palms weren't really sweaty and that I don't fucking blush whenever you say something that could be interpreted as nice to me? Did you really think that letting me spend time with you was going to make me come to the utterly laughable conclusion that I _don't_ fancy you?"

Lily stared at James, her lips pressed tightly together. "Before that little speech of yours, it seemed like a good idea." James gave her a lopsided grin and rested his chin on his fist again.

"So you didn't think that I actually fancied you?"

"I had no doubt in my mind that you _thought_ you fancied me." She said, chewing on the inside of her cheek. No matter how uncomfortable the topic of conversation, it was preferable to the silence. "I still have no doubt, but I'm not sure that you do fancy me. You hardly know me at all. This," She gestured between the two of them. "Is the longest conversation we've ever had, and the longest amount of time we've spent together alone."

" That may be true," James allowed. "But I think I know all the important stuff." He gave a partial shrug, using the arm that wasn't propping his head up. "And if not, I know enough of the important stuff to know that I fancy you." Lily looked down at her mug and tried to come up with a way to ask him what he thought he knew about her in a polite way that didn't make it sound like she was fishing for compliments. "You can just ask if you want." James grinned again, picking up a chip and tossing it in his mouth.

"Alright," She looked back at him, gripping her Butterbeer a little tighter. "What do you think you know?"

"There's the generic stuff, you know; you're smart, funny, beautiful and confident, kind and generous, but, while I think those qualities are important, I like other things about you too. I like that you're sarcastic all the time, especially when you want to keep something to yourself. I like that you don't always care to make sure that your stockings match or that your hair is perfect, but then you always have time to tutor younger kids and help your friends with their homework. You stand up for what you believe in, even when no one else is standing with you-"

"How could you know something like that?" Lily interrupted, crossing her arms over her chest and sending him a dubious look. "Do I make it a point to start rallies in the corridors or something?" James sat up straight and ran a hand through his hair, pausing at the base of his head to rub his neck. He looked at the corner of the table as he spoke.

"We were in potions class last term and Slughorn asked us a question about our assignment, everyone thought the answer was bulbous root or something, but you said it was something else and you were right. You didn't even let yourself think for a moment that you were wrong. That's not some light thing either. People almost always go with the majority."

"I knew I was right-"

"Even if they know that they're right."

"I'd done the reading. It's not some hidden character trait its-"

"You're stubborn as hell too." James grinned. "It doesn't always bode well for me, but I like that about you."

"Alright." Lily sighed and closed her eyes for a moment, almost ready to wish that he had never started talking in the first place. Or that she had just gotten up and left after the first half hour of silence like she had wanted to. She took a deep breath, willing herself not to argue the point any further. "For arguments sake, let's just say that you do actually fancy me." She put her mug down and wiped her hands on her skirt.

"Alright," James lent his head forward, prompting her to continue.

"I wasn't going to say anything else." Lily said. "Let's say that you fancy me and then move on to a different topic." James chuckled and took a sip of his drink.

"What do you want to talk about then?"

"Oh no." She shook her head, letting out a humorless laugh. "I've already tried to start a conversation with you about half a dozen times. It's your turn."

"Fair enough. Where are you from?"

"Cokesworth. You?"

"Presteigne. Favorite band?"

"Wizard or muggle?"

"Both."

"Imprinted Souls and Queen."

"I approve of the first, never heard of the second."

"That's inexcusable."

"I'm a wizard."

"Do you know the definition of inexcusable?"

As the date went on, James realized that he had decided to try and Lily realized she was laughing far too much for a girl who was meant to only be doing this to rid herself of her date. Eventually they finished their chips and their drinks and James asked if Lily would fancy taking a walk around town before they had to head back up to the castle. It was very cold outside, despite it being October, but Lily agreed. She wrapped a thick knit scarf around her neck and pulled on her mittens, stuffing her hands into her pockets when they stepped outside.

"Would you like to see something neat?" James asked, pulling a knit hat down over his ears.

Lily unburied her face from her scarf just long enough to say, "Of course."

"Follow me then." He led her towards the edge of town, away from the few students traveling between shops in the bitter cold, where there was a small creek. The creek was small, only a meter or two wide, three at its widest point, and it meandered about behind a few of the lesser-known shops. "Don't get too excited. I said it was neat, not remarkable." He looked slightly nervous again and it made Lily smile into her scarf. "You remember how everything unfroze and then refroze a couple of days ago?" Lily nodded her head. "Well, it made the creek swell and then drain rather quickly. Look what happened."

Lily turned her gaze away from James and towards where he was pointing. Around all the trees that were in the bank of the creek, about a foot up the trunk, were rings of ice with small icicles hanging down from them. They glittered spectacularly in the afternoon sun and Lily grinned. "It looks like the trees are wearing skirts. How did you find this?"

"I took the long way to meet you at the pub." He said to his shoes. "You know, because I had worked myself up so much. I thought it would help if I walked off some of the nervous energy." Lily's grin widened and she rolled her eyes.

"I don't think taking the long way did anything for you." James bumped his shoulder against hers. "It took me threatening to snog someone to get you to even speak to me."

"Well… I'm not even sure how to defend myself." James shrugged.

The date ended on a much better note than either party had anticipated.

"So," James asked, as they walked up the last flight of stairs leading to the Gryffindor common room. "How did I do?"

"Shaky start, but I think you finished alright." James laughed and nodded his head.

"Now, you realize that I have to ask," He took a deep breath and Lily rethought, for the last time, the decision that she had already came to. "Do I get a second date?"

They stopped in front of the portrait of the Fat Lady and Lily turned to him smiling. "How about the next time there's a Hogsmeade trip, you can ask me out again and I'm telling you now that my answer will, probably, be yes." James grinned. Lily was glad that he was happy with that answer, because while she had had fun, she still didn't fancy him. He was still Potter, and she hadn't quite forgotten all of the reasons that she didn't normally speak to him.

"That sounds like a much better answer than the one I thought I was going to get." James shoved his hands in his pockets and turned towards the portrait, giving the Fat Lady the password.

"Yes well," Lily walked through the porthole ahead of him. "It went a lot differently than I thought it was going to."

* * *

**AN: Hello everyone and welcome to my latest Jily multi-chapter fic. This is going to be a short project (I've nearly written the entire thing already and it seems as though it will have eight or so chapters) because it's an in between project. Someone sent me a prompt on Tumblr, and that's how this happened. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed. **

**Remember, reviewers are golden. 3**


	2. Chapter 2

**Second Date**

Location: Path to Hogsmeade, Hogwarts Grounds, Scotland

Time: 10:36

The next Hogsmeade weekend was set the weekend before winter break, about a month after the last trip. James had asked Lily a few days before Saturday, and even though a few other boys did the same, she said 'yes' to him and come Saturday morning, they found themselves walking down the path that led to the town, wearing a bit less clothes than they had during the previous trip.

"I still brought my scarf." Lily told him, pulling the end of it out of her bag and running her fingers over the fringe. "I couldn't believe that it was actually too warm for it, so I got paranoid and brought it along anyway." Lily saw James drop his hands to his side and swing it along next to hers. The corner of her mouth quirked up at this.

"I've got my hat and gloves stuffed in my pockets." James said with a nod, either oblivious to her amused smile or determinedly ignoring it. "It snowed in October and now it's nearly summer come December." Just before their hands would have bumped, James stuffed them back in his pockets. Lily looked up at him and noticed that his easy grin had turned into a frown. His brow was crinkled up and he looked as though he was making up his mind about something or other.

"What are you thinking about?" Lily asked.

"Nothing." James said quickly, flashing his most charming smile at her. Lily crinkled her brow and pressed her lips together. What was that? "Why do you ask?" Lily chose to ignore the false smile.

"You looked a bit upset for a moment there, and seeing as how we were only talking about the weather…"

"It's nothing." James shook his head. Just then, Arnold Chattaroy walked past them and waved at Lily. When he had rounded a corner of the path and the pair could no longer see him, James cleared his throat and pulled a hand out of his pocket to mess up his hair. "I heard he asked you out last week."

"He did." Lily said, pursing her lips and squinting her eyes cautiously.

"He asked you out before I did." James said, looking further up the road and pretending that he didn't notice the way Lily was looking at him. Though, now she had breathed a sigh of relief. She had thought he was going to be an arse about the fact that someone else had asked her out, but she got the feeling that it had more to do with nerves now than jealousy.

"Yep." Lily tried to hide a smile. She found nervous James to be very entertaining, almost endearing.

"He's not a bad bloke." He said with a shrug.

She could seem him looking at her out of the corner of his eyes. "No, he's not." She agreed, swinging her head from side to side.

"Why didn't you say yes to him?" James turned to look at her, still grinning, but his eyes gave him away. He wasn't acting it, but he looked just as nervous as he had been last time. She decided to throw him a bone.

"I don't normally act in accordance to a first come first serve basis. Besides, I had already promised you that we'd go together." She knew that this wasn't technically true, but his face lit up when she said it and it might has well have been true. She had _acted_ as though she had promised, turning down Marcus Bones even. And one did not simply turn down _Marcus Bones_. Though, Lily supposed that many girls felt the same way about James.

"So," Lily looked around the street, pushing a strand of hair behind her ear and pushing all thoughts of Marcus from her mind. "Where to first?"

"Anywhere you'd like." James' fake smile was back in place and his whole demeanor shifted, as though someone had flipped a switch.

"Well," Lily looked around. There were a lot of kids out on the path today, on account of the good weather. "Let's go to Honeydukes first. It's probably not that crowded at the mo."

"Sounds good." James nodded, running a hand through his hair, making sure to pause near the top to muddle it up. Lily tried to pretend she hadn't noticed. "You know, one trip last year, Sirius had three different dates to Hogsmeade. He juggled them throughout the day, meeting up with them in different locations, but around one he had accidentally told all three of them to meet him at Honeydukes." James laughed at the memory, but Lily, who already knew this story, frowned. One of the girls had been one of her roommates. "It was hilarious. Two of the went at it with one another while the other one chased him around the shop, throwing anything that she could get a hold of at him. He's no longer allowed in the shop."

"Understandable." Lily gave a sharp nod, trying not let herself believe that the entire last date had been a masquerade.

"You have to admit that it was a bit unfair." Lily bit her tongue to keep the, 'No I don't' from falling off her lips. "I don't think anything short of burning the building down warrants a lifetime ban from _Honeydukes_."

"He shouldn't have been stringing three different girls around." Lily shrugged. "Besides, Lauren Lorenzo is the owner of Honeydukes' niece."

James laughed at what Lily had meant to be justification for Sirius's ban. "Merlin, no wonder he was so pissed." They reached the store and James held the door open for Lily, the first decent thing he'd done since they got to town in Lily's opinion. Once they were inside however, he dove into yet another story, though this time it was about himself and Sirius and some prank they had pulled on some Ravenclaws.

"-Anyway, that's how Sirius ended up with three weeks of weekend detention and a black eye. McGonagall told him that that was the first time she'd given detention to the person on the receiving end of a hex."

Lily didn't know how many more of these stories she could handle. Or why he was telling her them. She turned towards the closest shelf and picked up the first things she saw. "Have you ever had this before?"

James inspected the chocolate, some German made kind with pecans and caramel. "I believe so. Remus has bought just about everything in here at one point or another. You could say he's got a thing for chocolate." Lily grinned, thankful to have steered his attention away from wherever it had been before.

"I love it though." She said. "Remus' chocolate addiction I mean. Whenever we're studying together and I get tired and don't want to do anymore Ancient Runes, he'll bribe me with chocolate." James laughed. "Of course, when I learned I got chocolate when I didn't want to do my homework I got much more difficult. He quickly learned that I'm much more cooperative if he starts off the study session by giving me chocolate." More laughter, this time from the both of them.

"He's a smart bloke." James grabbed a pack of blood-lollies and mint licorice wands. Lily quirked an eyebrow at his odd choice of sweets. James grinned and held them up.

"For Sirius." James said. "Being the great mates we are, we always make sure to pick him up something from the shop."

"Does Sirius enjoy either of those things?"

"Nah." James shrugged, causing Lily to laugh again. It was almost feeling like it had last time, with easy laughter and continuous smiles, and then it wasn't. They left the story and walked past the small Quidditch supplies shop that was in between Honeyduke's and the Three Broomsticks. This is when James thought it would be a good idea to recount the last six years of Quidditch games to Lily, and his pivotal role in all of them.

The rest of the date wasn't exactly _bad_, but it didn't go nearly as well as the first one. James continued to try to impress Lily, acting exactly how she thought he was going to act on their first date. He made her laugh honestly a few more times after they left Hogwarts, but for the majority of the time, she found herself giving him tight-lipped smiles and looking at her watch. Eventually he seemed to notice, but instead of adjusting his behavior accordingly, he got quiet and they ended up eating dinner with some mutual friends to have a moments rest from the one-on-one time.

When the date was over, and the two once again found themselves standing in front of the fat lady, neither one of them was smiling anymore. James rubbed at the base of his jaw and Lily chewed on her lip as they stood across from one another, awkwardly waiting for the other to say something that would end the date.

"So," Lily started, looking up at him. James sighed and let his shoulder slumped.

"That didn't go well, did it?" He asked, his voice full of regret.

"Not exactly." Lily muttered, finding herself to mentally exhausted to feel anything more than relief that it was over. The look on his face made her sigh and continue, "Which is strange, because-"

"What do you mean it's strange?" James asked, sounding a bit harsh. "Weren't you expecting it to go like this?"

"Last time, yes." Lily said patiently, knowing that he was more upset with himself than with her at the moment. She also just didn't have the energy to fight with him. She was making a mental list of what she had to do before she could collapse into her bed. The girls were going to want her to tell them everything again. She sighed. "But maybe that's the difference. You weren't trying so hard last time."

"Of course I was." James crossed his arms.

"No you weren't." Lily shook her head. "And if you were, and _this_ is how you normally act…" James looked at her quietly for a moment, looking as though he had more to say, but keeping his mouth shut. Lily stood in front of him politely waiting for him to gather his thoughts and trying very hard not to yawn.

"So I don't get a third date?"

"I don't think so, James." Lily said, crossing her arms and shrugging her shoulders. Without thinking about it too much, she added, "We can be friends if you'd like." She wished she could suck that back into her mouth as soon as she saw the pained look that jerked onto James' face. She went to say something else, something that would fix it, but she didn't know what else to say so she just pressed her lips together and waited for him to say something.

"That's one line I never thought I'd hear you say." James muttered at length, letting his head drop so his chin was resting on his chest. He brought it back up and sighed. "Can I ask you what it was exactly? What did I do that put you off?"

Lily shrugged again. "I told you. You were acting like… Like _Potter._"

James narrowed his eyes. "I am, Potter."

"Yes," Lily nodded. "But you didn't get a second date acting like Potter. You got the second date acting like James. At least I hope so anyway."

"I don't know what that means." Lily sighed and gave the Fat Lady the password.

"I don't know what to tell you, James. Regardless, I don't think this," She motioned to the both of them. "Was meant to be." And then she disappeared into the common room.

* * *

**AN: I apologize, but I'm fairly sure that the summary says that it gets better before it gets worse so... you were warned. **

**Reviews are the bee's knees, cool-cats! 3**


	3. Chapter 3

**Third Date**

Location: Downtown London, England

Time: 1:57pm

Lily wasn't sure why she had decided to go home for Christmas. She loved her mum to pieces of course, but her grandmother was staying with them and Lily and her grandmother mixed about as well as oil and water. To top it all off, Petunia and her slug of a husband had been coming around every day as well. Sometimes they would even bring Vernon's sister, Marge. Neither Lily, her mum or her grandmother enjoyed the company of Marge Dursley. Lily had a sneaking suspicion that Petunia did not much care for the woman either, so why they kept bringing her with them was lost to the youngest Evans daughter.

So far today, Lily had been asked to put her wand away four different times by her grandmother, told that her schooling wasn't going to do her any good in the 'real world,' listened to an hour long rant on why magic was about as useful as dirt and how she needed to grow up and get a proper education. Her mum had tried her best to end both the wand snatching and the rant, but her grandmother was relentless.

And then there was Vernon. Ever since Petunia had told him about Lily's _freakish_ ways, he had been doing nothing but giving her the side-eye and making snide comments about warts and toads. Lily was not at all impressed by this unoriginality, but it bothered her nevertheless. Perhaps because Petunia said nothing to stop him while her Grandmother didn't even try and pretend that she wasn't laughing.

Needless to say, Lily needed a break and the Leaky Cauldron seemed like the perfect location to take said break.

She walked through the door of the seemingly rundown shop on a muggle street and was ready to be greeted with the pathetic lot of people who come to pubs at two in the afternoon on Tuesdays. However, it was only a few days before Christmas, so the pub was almost crowded.

Almost immediately upon entering the pub, Lily was met with a familiar sound.

"When my mum said she wanted us out of the house for a bit, I don't think she meant she wanted us to come here and get sloshed." Lily looked over and saw three of the four Marauders seated in a booth. When she looked around she didn't see anyone else she knew. Then she thought about turning around and leaving because, well, the last time she talked to James it wasn't all sunshine and daisies. She found herself watching them regardless.

"Then don't get sloshed." Sirius said with a shrug, picking up his mug and taking a large swig.

"Mrs. Potter isn't going to be happy with you." Remus said, taking a much more modest drink, his eyes drifted across the pub and fell on Lily, who felt herself instantly blush. She looked to the floor and started fidgeting with her scarf. She heard the Marauders mutter amongst themselves and she decided that leaving wasn't an option now. She started across the pub, heading for the bar, and willed the blood in her cheeks to dissipate.

"Oi! Evans!" James called, standing up and waving to her. Lily looked around and saw Remus drop his head to his hands and Sirius's face seemed to be perfectly balanced between annoyance and amusement. Lily smiled at them and went to continue on her way to the bar. "Join us!" He called before she had turned away from him completely. Lily smiled at him and held up a finger.

She finished walking to the bar and ordered her drink. She had told James that they could be friends. Maybe that's why he was inviting her to sit with them. He wanted to be friend. It had been a couple weeks since their disaster of a date, perhaps he was over it. Lily crossed her fingers as she started towards their table. She noticed that Remus had moved to Sirius's side of the booth meaning that she would have to sit next to James.

"Hullo, boys." She said, trying to make her smile look genuine. "What brings the three of you here?"

"More interestingly," Sirius said, leaning forward and grabbing the basket of chips that James had in front of him. "What are _you_ doing at a pub, _alone_, at two o'clock in the afternoon?"

Lily frowned, but his question seemed to have peaked the curiosity of everyone at the table. "My brother-in-law and I don't get along too well." She said, taking a chip for herself.

James cocked his head a bit. "Didn't know you had a sister."

"Yep." Lily nodded.

"Why does she let her husband be an arse to you?" Sirius asked.

"Well, my sister and I don't get along too well either. Or me and my grandmother for that matter." Lily rolled her eyes and took a drink of her Butterbeer.

"You want to talk about family problems?" Sirius said with a laugh.

"Padfoot," James said warningly. Lily put a hand on James' arm, ignoring how his eyes flashed to hers almost instantly.

"It's fine." She looked back at Sirius. "My sister is the complete opposite of the majority of your family. And by that, I don't mean she's a wonderful person who reads to the blind and rescues kittens in her free time." Sirius smirked appreciatively. "I mean she just takes the other extreme. Where your family hates me because I don't come from a magical family, my sister hates me because I have magic and am not a muggle. She only let me come to her wedding because my mother threatened not to go if she didn't." Sirius raised his eyebrows and cracked a grin at her.

"I still think my families worse, but merlin's balls, Evans."

"Well, Petunia hasn't killed anyone yet." Lily shrugged. Sirius laughed and James exchanged a look with Remus.

"My mother hates me," He paused for a moment and Lily nodded. "One year, we were at a Christmas party and she went around introducing Reg to everyone, making sure that they all thought that he was her only son." Lily laughed.

"My grandmother does the same thing! I went out to Layton to visit last summer and she has pictures of Petunia and all my cousins all over her house, but not one picture of me. She sends out birthday cards and other holiday cards, and once I turned thirteen, I didn't get them anymore. She pretends that I don't exist. My mum called her out on it one year, but that didn't do anything."

"Why does your grandmother hate you?" Sirius asked, popping another chip into his mouth.

"I wanted to tell her that I was a witch because I was tired of her trying to guilt me into going to school in Cokesworth with my sister, instead of going to a boarding school in Scotland. She didn't take kindly to it. Petunia loves her all the more for it. I'm the family freak." Sirius snorted into his mug and gave Lily a sympathetic nod.

"Watching someone fawn over your sibling while they throw you a derisive glare is always tons of fun." Lily returned his nod and took a drink.

"Well, as much fun as this is…" Remus said as he began scooting out of the booth. "Sirius and I still need to go shopping for Christmas presents."

"Right." Sirius nodded, he looked over at James. "He wants to spend alone time with you as well, but, we're only leaving to buy Mrs. Potter a few cloaks or whatnot." Lily grinned at him and soon half of their booth was empty.

James let out a sigh, as the door to Diagon Alley swung shut. "Sometimes, it takes everything in me not to reach out and strangle him."

"Yes." Lily nodded solemnly. "Especially when he lets it slip that you fancy the girl sitting next to you. Even though you've already told her that you fancy her."

"We're just friends now." James ran a hand through his hair and then reached for the basket of chips. "Because I mucked up the last date."

"Yeah." Lily bit her lip and cocked her head to the side. She felt surprisingly at ease talking about this. She had thought it was going to be awkward, but she found the words came easily and she was able to ask, "Why did you do that, anyhow?"

"What do you mean? I didn't do it on purpose."

"You had to have done it on purpose. You can't go from acting like an actual person to- to…"

"Acting like _Potter_?" James supplied, raising a brow and sounding slightly exasperated. "You never did tell me what that meant."

Lily tapped her fingers against her glass and stared into the golden colored drink. "You know Cassidy Fisher? The sixth year Ravenclaw girl who is always going on about how great she is and how she's top of her class and how she got the highest score on her History of Magic O.W.L. in recent history?"

"History of Magic is a stupid subject."

"You know who I'm talking about though?"

"Yes." James nodded, not yet seeing her connection. "I know Cassidy pretty well. She tried to get Sirius to date her last- Well, since fourth year actually."

"Do you like Cassidy?" Lily looked over at him now, raising both her brows slightly. James widened his eyes and dropped his shoulders.

"You're likening me to _Cassidy_?"

"You're not as bad as Cassidy." Lily assured him. "But going from whoever I was with on the first date to whoever you were being on the second date, you might as well have been."

James looked down and nodded. "I know I was an arse. I knew it when I was doing it."

"That's why I said no to another date." Lily sighed. "Instead of apologizing, you just stopped talking all together and then got short with me."

"If you haven't noticed, you tend to make me a bit nervous."

"I have noticed." Lily smiled. "I'm just not interested in playing any games. We can be friends. If we're friends then it doesn't really matter all that much and-"

"And if I stopped acting like an arse? If I was 'James,' the bloke from the first date?"

"I don't want you to be someone that you're not." Lily said, shaking her head. "I'm not even saying that I fancied the bloke from the first date. I was just saying that he was a lot more fun to be around."

James picked up a chip and worked on eating it very slowly, mulling over what Lily had said. "So we should be friends then." James let his head drop down in a nod and then swung around to look at Lily.

"Yes. If you'd like," Lily said, taking another chip for herself. "We'll be friends."

"Alright, but this counts as a date." James cracked a grin and Lily raised her brows yet again. This boy really did have some nerve, didn't he? Hadn't she just explained all this to him only moments before? She _didn't _fancy him. Which would mean that she didn't want to go on another date with him.

"It's not a date."

"We're alone in a pub, eating chips, drinking Butterbeer and talking. It's a date."

"We're only alone because you sent your friends away."

"I didn't send them away." He said incredulously. Lily gave him a look and he laughed. "I might have suggested that they make themselves scarce, but I didn't send them away. And I'm fine with just being mates. But just because that's what we're labeling this as, as hanging out as mates, instead of a date, doesn't mean that I'm not going to try and change your mind along the way."

"Strangely enough, I don't really like it when my mates have ulterior motives for being my mate."

"I fancy you, Lily. Trying to change your mind, is allowed."

"I don't like it when you're a smarmy bastard." Lily said, trying to hide a grin. Despite herself, she was actually enjoying James' antics and she was getting the feeling that they had only just begun.

"Yeah, but do you not like it like you didn't like our second date, or do you not like it like you don't like it when Professor Slughorn singles out your brilliance in class? And keep in mind I see you smile in class and I can see you smiling now." Lily shook her head and stood up.

"I should be getting back home. Relatives to visit, cookies to bake." James stood up with her and put a hand on her shoulder, looking much more serious than he had a moment ago.

"If you need to get away sometime before we head back to school, you can come over to my house anytime. And I'm not saying this because I fancy you, and I'd like to get you to come over, I just-"

"Heard what I said to Sirius." Lily smiled. "Thanks. I might take you up on that." She turned and headed for the door. She made it out onto the street before James decided that the conversation wasn't over.

"Oi! Lily!" She turned around, bunching her scarf around her neck to keep the cold at bay.

"Yes?" She asked. James hadn't bothered with his clock, or a scarf. The snowflakes that had seemed to appear out of nowhere started to settle in his hair.

"Better or worse than our last date?" His grin was cheeky, but Lily detected just the smallest amount of uncertainty. She smiled at him and felt something inside of her grow when he smiled back.

"It wasn't a date." She said quietly, muffled by her scarf as she stuffed her hands into her pockets.

"Humor me." He said, reaching up to brush the snow out of his hair, or to mess it up, Lily wasn't sure.

She gave him a once over and then no longer felt the urge to argue the point with him. She unburied her face from her scarf and with a small smile replied, "Better."

* * *

**AN: Well... what do you all think? Personally, I love writing them and I love them and I love the ending of this chapter. **

**Next chapter will be up soon. **

**Reviews are the shit. **


	4. Chapter 4

**Fourth Date**

Location: James Potter's house, Presteigne, England

Time: 11:57

It was now two days after Christmas, and Lily was feeling slightly foolish standing on James' front porch. If you could even call it that. She felt like she was underdressed, and the house looked as though she might accidentally run into the Minister of Magic, or the Queen of England. Normal people didn't live in houses like this. Not that James was normal per say…

She took a deep breath and knocked on one of the large oak doors that was almost twice as tall as her own front door, and filled with colorful glass paneling. Soon, a woman that looked to be in her late sixties or early seventies answered the door with a smile.

"Hullo, dear." She said, stepping aside to let Lily in without even asking for her name.

"I'm Lily." She said before she stepped inside. The woman quickly closed the door behind her. "Lily Evans, I go to school with-"

"With my son! Yes, of course." She reached out and pulled Lily into a hug. _Son?_ The woman looked old enough to be James' grandmother. "James said that you might be visiting. However, Sirius laughed at him when he said that. Cricket!" She called over her shoulder. A house elf appeared almost instantly at Mrs. Potter's side.

"Yes, Mistress Grace?"

"Would you mind fetching James for me, Cricket? I believe he's in the study with his father and the minister." Lily just about choked on her tongue.

"The minister?" She squeaked, as the house elf disappeared. "Of magic?"

"Yes." Grace nodded. "Him and Charles went to Hogwarts together. Of course, this isn't exactly a social visit." She raised her eyebrows and took Lily's arm. "Let's go get some tea while we wait for James, yes?" Lily nodded dumbly and followed Grace Potter through, what appeared to be a museum. They walked quite a ways from the door before reaching the kitchen, and despite all of the other incredible things she saw during the walk, she still couldn't get over the fact that the Minister of Magic was actually in the house. Eldon Macmillan had been elected to office the previous year and his strong stance on Muggle rights and suppressing the Death Eater movement had made him seem like a good leader in Lily's eyes. At the time anyway.

"That's so bizarre." Lily muttered, a bit too loud she soon realized.

"Excuse me?" Grace turned round, looking slightly amused.

"Sorry, it's just, the Minister of Magic is currently in your house." Grace smiled at Lily and nodded. "And that's normal to you?"

"Well, when you spend as much time as I have in the political sector, I suppose politicians lose a bit of their shine."

"Oh, I know that he's not perfect by any means. The way he handled the issue with the Japanese Minister about the portkeys and floo networks last year was less than stellar. I get that you have to take a certain degree of precaution when you open your country up to thousands of others, but it was the world cup, and what he said was more than slightly offensive." Grace smiled at her again as she pulled two teacups out of the cupboard.

"I agree." She nodded. "And in most cases, the stories are spun so that it always sounds worse in print. But I was there when he said it, and they were kind to him. Don't know why. The Prophet's always circling the ship looking for bait." She put the kettle on the stove and lit the burner with magic. "Of course it probably has something to do with the fact that his niece runs the paper. Merlin, would that have helped me out when I was head of the D.M.L.E; having a blood relative at the Prophet."

Lily's head was spinning slightly. She had known that James' parents were important people in the wizarding world, but she was still blown away. _Head_ of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement? The entire thing had been under Mrs. Potter's control? But she seemed so... fluttery.

"Though, we don't really have many blood relative's left. Charles has his sister Lucille and he had a brother, Richard. But he never married and doesn't have any children that we know of. He died two Christmas's ago. No love lost there. Those two never did work out how to get along. Drove their mother to drink if you ask me." She looked over at Lily. "Let's not tell Charles I said that." Lily nodded and Grace kept talking as though she had known Lily her whole life. She was like the overly friendly grandmother that Lily wished she could replace with her own grandmother and Lily still couldn't picture her working along side Aurors like Alastor Moody and Marcus McKinnon. She could picture her arguing politics either. She seemed the type to smile at whatever you had to say and then tell you a story. But maybe Lily only felt that way because that's what she had done with her.

"-and when James was two, he would strip down to his birthday suit and throw rocks at the neighbor's cat. That's why we had to move out here. I miss the old house sometimes, but my older sister always liked it more than I did. Left it to her husband's nephew in her will though. Never did understand the way she thinks. I like it here though. No neighbors for James to terrorize. Not that he walks around in the nude anymore. He stopped doing that after I had my friend Luisa over for tea and forgot to tell him. He was embarrassed to say the least."

Before she could say much more, James walked into the kitchen a bit red in the face, giving Lily the impression that he had heard the last bit of what his mother had said. "Lily!" He was enthusiastic about seeing her nonetheless.

"Hullo, James."

"Is he about done?" Grace asked, a shadow of annoyance falling over her face. "He's been here for half the day now."

"They were playing chess when I left."

"So things were friendly?"

"As friendly as they could be." He sat down next to Lily at the counter and his mum set down two cups of tea in front of them.

"Well, I'm going to make my way back there then. You two stay out of trouble." She walked out of the room.

"Your parents are friends with the Minister of Magic." Lily said, taking a sip of her tea.

"He went to school with-"

"Your dad. Your mum told me."

"My mum says a lot of things." James ran a hand through his hair and Lily laughed.

"She is rather friendly."

"Good, that means she likes you."

"Where's Sirius?"

"He always makes himself scarce whenever someone from the ministry comes over. He doesn't want his parents finding out that he's staying here. Not that anyone that my parent have over here would talk to his family." He crossed his arms and rested them on the counter. "Though technically, Elton is his Great Uncle."

Lily put her tea down and shook her head. "The wizarding world is crazy."

"Yep." James agreed. "So, what do you want to do?"

"What?"

"You came over to my house." James smirked. "What do you want to do?"

"Well, I was thinking that I could avoid my grandmother and you could do whatever you normally do."

"Exploding Snap?"

"Sounds good to me."

They moved from the kitchen to a large impressive room with high ceilings and drapes heavier than her father's Cadillac. There was a grand piano in the far corner and a fireplace surrounded by large couches. James walked across the room, Lily following behind him, taking in the extravagant statue in the corner, the Persian rugs that were bigger than her den, and all the portraits of men and woman on the walls (some had James' nose, others had his eyes.)

While she was busy having a staring contest with a particularly old looking man, James reached for one of the bookcases near the fireplace and pulled it open, revealing a secret room. Lily bit her tongue and mentally berated herself for being surprised. She tried to keep her face impassive, but she could tell by the smug look on James' face that he could tell she was impressed.

"No wonder you have a knack for finding secret passages at school." She said, walking into a much smaller, less intimidating room. It reminded Lily of the Gryffindor common room actually. She walked over to the fireplace (she looked into the fire and realized that it was the same fireplace that was in the other room, she could see the elegant couches from where she was.) James picked up a deck of cards off the mantel and sat down on the rug in front of the fireplace.

"So, anything in particular that drove you out of your house today?"

"I don't really want to talk about my family right now." Lily sighed, taking a seat across from him and pulling one of the throw blankets down from the couch.

"I was insinuating that you missed me terribly, but if you want to pretend that you're only here to avoid your family, I'll play along." Lily smiled and shook her head. She liked that he did that, switched from caring friend to playful in a matter of seconds.

"I was hoping you would."

A few hours later, Lily and James were sprawled out on the couch with a bottle of his mother's white wine and a bowl of chocolate covered pretzels.

James threw his head back and laughed, "You didn't do that."

"What was I supposed to do?" Lily laughed, "My grandmother was more drunk that Sirius was last Halloween."

"I sincerely doubt that." James said, still laughing. "Anyway, what are we doing for dinner?"

Lily grabbed another handful of pretzels and made a point of stuffing a few in her mouth without answering him.

"Yes, we could eat pretzels for dinner." James nodded. "Or…" She ate another pretzel. "Yes. Pretzels it is."

"Your mum is really nice." Lily said, taking the bottle from James and taking a drink.

"You do know that she doesn't know that we have that, right?" He nodded towards the wine.

"Yes. And that's not what I was talking about."

"Right. Then yes, she's alright."

"She's great!" Lily said, throwing a pretzel at him. "She let me into your house before I even told her who I was, which I would say was dangerous except she's a witch so it's really not. And then she just talked to me like she hadn't seen me in a while."

"She's really friendly." James shrugged. "You shouldn't take anything of what she says seriously."

"You're only saying that because you heard her tell me that you used to run around the house naked."

James jetted out his bottom jaw and shook his head. "Actually I'm not. She tells everyone that."

Lily frowned. "Then why were you all red in the face when you walked into the kitchen?"

"Because you were at my house." James shrugged. "I was nervous."

"And you're not anymore?"

"Nah, I think this date is going rather well."

"It's not a date."

"Sure it is." James smirked as Lily rolled her eyes and he took the bottle from her, putting a cork in it and setting it on the end table.

"Better or worse?" His smirk morphed into an actual smile. Lily looked confused.

"Better or worse than what?"

"Is this better or worse than the last date?" Lily leant over and shoved his shoulder, tilting the bowl of pretzels and causing a few to fall to the floor.

"Considering that the last date wasn't actually a date either-"

"Pretend that it was."

"Fine." She tucked her hair behind her ear. "I got free food out of this date so… better."

"You stole my chips last time."

"Oh yeah." She shrugged. "Well this is still better." James reached over and brushed some crumbs off her shoulder.

"Good." Lily laughed.

"You know, eventually I'm not going to be able to say 'better.'"

"Nonsense. Spending more time with me only makes you like me more, which makes you enjoy spending time with me more."

"Right." Lily looked up at the grandfather clock across the room and sighed. "I didn't realize it was so late. I have to get back home, before my grandmother has another reason to shout at me." She and James stood up.

"Before you go," He put a hand on her lower back as he led her out of the secret room. "What are you doing for New Years?"

"Watching my Uncle Davie get drunk and take off my grandmother's wig again."

"Oh." James raised his brow and chuckled. "Well, if you wanted another option, my parents are having a ba- party New Year's Eve and I'd love for you to come."

"Were you going to say ball?"

"No."

"James?"

"Alright, yes. They call it a ball, it's really not though."

"Do I have to dress fancy?"

"You don't have to, but it is a formal event and everyone else will be."

"Are you going to count it as a date?"

"Of course."

"I'll come anyway."

"Brilliant."

They reached the front room just as both of James' parents and the Minister of Magic were making their way there. Lily tucked her hair behind her ears and pull the hem of her shirt down, trying to make herself look more presentable. She had thought he would have left hours ago. James grabbed hold of Lily's shoulder to stop her from walking into the foyer.

"I'm so sorry that I took up your entire day, Charles." The Minister said, shaking Mr. Potter's hand. "But you had some really interesting points and I'll be going over them with the committee first thing tomorrow morning."

"It was nice to catch up." Charles Potter said tersely, sounding very much like he meant the opposite of what he had said. "You know that you're always welcomed here."

"You're both so sweet." He kissed Grace on the cheek and Lily noticed that she looked almost upset, and even though she had only met the woman today, she knew that her being quiet was not a good sign.

"Come back again soon." Grace said, holding open the door. As soon as he was gone, James let go of her shoulder and walked out in front of her.

"He's just leaving?" He asked, sounding annoyed himself. "What else could he have wanted from you?"

"Nothing." Charles sighed. "He spent most of the afternoon trying to convince me to support that damn bill. It's going to cause all sorts of problems if it passes. Maybe the biggest problem will be the merit it's going to give to what that Voldemort character's been saying." He took off his large glasses, putting them in his front pocket and massaged his eyes. "The only reason I still talk to that man is to keep him from doing something especially harmful and then he goes and does this to me. I'm going to be calling in favors all week over this bill." Grace cleared her throat and walked up to Lily.

"We did a horrible job raising our son," She said, casting a disapproving look at James. "So I'll make the introductions. Charles, this is James' friend Lily Evans. Lily, Charles Potter."

Charles looked surprised to find her standing there, four feet from him. "I'm so sorry." He shook his head and put his glasses back on. "I guess I'm older than I thought I was. It's a pleasure to meet you dear. Will you be staying for dinner?" He held his hand out.

Lily stepped forward and shook it. "I'm afraid not. My grandmother is cooking dinner for us tonight and she's invited my aunts and uncles. I've got to be home in twenty minutes to help set the table."

"Of course, it's still the holidays." He nodded. "Well, I hope to get the chance to properly meet you soon."

"Lily will be attending our New Year's ball." James said, ignoring the smile that Lily sent him.

"Oh! Wonderful!" Grace chirped, putting an arm around Lily's shoulders. "It's going to be spectacular this year. I found a place up in Paris that sells fireworks that spell out 'Happy New Year.' I'm so excited. Will your parents come as well? They are more than welcomed to."

"I don't think so. Mum's already gone and invited the whole family over for New Year's so she's got to stay and babysit them. Make sure no one gets into too much trouble."

"They could all come!" Grace smiled hugely at her. "I would love to meet them."

"I don't think that would be a great idea, because of the statute of secrecy and all." Lily said, imagining the look on her Uncles face when he saw a tiny creature in a toga serving him a spritzer.

"You're a Muggle Born?" Charles asked.

"Yes, sir." She nodded, feeling slightly self-conscious for the first time since entering the Potter's estate.

"Wonderful!" Grace squeezed Lily's shoulder. "We should have your parents round for tea at least. The statute doesn't apply to them."

"Mum would love that." Lily said, no longer feeling uncomfortable. Of course they didn't care. If they cared, it would have rubbed off on James, and he obviously didn't care. "I take her to Diagon Alley every year to help me get my school supplies. She's completely fascinated with magic."

"And what about your dad?" Charles asked. "Have you taken him to any Quidditch matches?"

Lily hesitated slightly but then nodded. "My dad passed away last year, but I did get to take him to a few. It was easier to show him then try and explain it all."

"Oh," Grace squeezed her shoulder again. "Did he love them? I wish I could remember the first time I went to a Quidditch game."

"He did." Lily nodded. "I actually had to read a few books on Quidditch so that I could explain everything to him. He always had so many questions about how everything worked. And telling him that it was magic stopped working after I started school." James' parents laughed appreciatively and Lily couldn't remember feeling this welcomed anywhere in a long time. She looked over and saw James leaning against the wall with his arms crossed, wearing a satisfied smile. He winked at her when he noticed her looking and she got the feeling that she had at the end of their third date again, the growing feeling.

Lily left shortly afterwards, promising to bring her mother round as soon as possible.

* * *

**AN: Longest chapter yet. I hope you enjoyed Grace Potter as much as I did. **

**Leave a review because Simon said. **


	5. Chapter 5

**Date Five**

Location: Lily's Bedroom, The Evan's House, Cokesworth, England

Time: 7:42

Lily felt a bit ridiculous in her dress robes. She kept telling herself that it was only because she had so few opportunities to wear dress robes, but no matter how many times she tried to convince herself that she was going to fit right in at the party, she still felt as though she was playing dress up.

With one last huff in the direction of her reflection, she made her way downstairs.

"You look beautiful." Her mother greeted her in the kitchen. She took Lily's hand and spun her around. "Simply beautiful." Lily grinned and pulled her hand away.

"I feel absurd." She muttered. Rose Evans took her daughter's chin in her hand and tilted her face up.

"At the moment, you are dressed like a lady, Lily Christine. Ladies do not mumble." Lily rolled her eyes and then reached out to hug her mum.

"Where is everyone?" She asked, noting the absence of relatives.

"I told them not to come until eight. No use having them all here for the entire evening." She looked down at her watch and sighed. "You should get going soon. You know your Uncle is always early to things."

"Don't want to have to explain my outfit." Lily said, picking up a hand full of the robes and swishing them around. "He'd never let me live it down."

"Or worse," Rose said with a small smile. "He might start wearing robes as well."

"Why couldn't we have gotten a normal family?"

"Normal is no fun." She kissed Lily's nose. "Are you apperating from the backyard?"

"Yes." Lily nodded and double-checked her robe pockets for her wand. "The area between the garden shed and the fence should be safe. Just make sure that Uncle Davie doesn't pass out over there or things could get messy." Rose nodded.

"And what time do you think you'll be home?"

"I have no idea." Lily shrugged. "I don't know how long these parties go. I've never been to one before. Two?"

"I'll leave the kitchen light on. If you're not back by the time I wake up I'll have the entire royal guard searching for you before your grandmother has her first cup of tea."

Lily laughed and shook her head. "I'll definitely be back before then."

Lily went out behind the garden shed and apperated to the location James had given her. She appeared just outside the gate to his house feeling a bit disoriented.

"Lily?" She looked up and found James looking down at her.

"James?" Lily brushed her robes off to straighten them and then touched her hair to make sure that it was still in place. "What are you doing down here? Aren't you supposed to be inside greeting people?"

"Yes." He nodded, offering her his arm. She smiled at him as she accepted it. "But I sneaked away to meet my date. You look stunning, by the way." Lily tucked her head down as she felt her cheeks heat up. He didn't seem to notice though.

"I don't know why you're making me say this so many times, but again, this is not a date."

"Of course not." James grinned. "But it is."

"Really though, aren't your parents going to be upset that you sneaked away?"

"You've met them." James shrugged. "They don't really get upset with me." Lily understood what he meant, and it wasn't only because she had thought that his mum was his grandmother when she met Grace Potter. "Besides, I forgot to tell you the best part about this party." He was looking at her in what had become his trademarked mischievous smirk.

"And what's that?" Lily noticed that there was music pouring out of the opened windows of the house. Orchestra music. Not that she didn't like it, and she was wearing dress robes, but it hadn't been what she was expecting. She hadn't expected what James said next either.

"We might be the only two guests in attendance under the age of forty." He looked ahead of him while he said this, smirk still in place.

"So not only did you trick me into being your date, you also invited me to a completely dull party?"

"I didn't trick you into being my date, but yes." James nodded. "I can introduce you to people if you'd like."

"Why would I want you to introduce me to a bunch of old people?"

James shrugged. "The minister is here again. We didn't get the chance to introduce you last time. There's also quite a few former Quidditch players, the editor of the Daily Prophet, almost the entire auror department, a few of our professors and Bathilda Bagshot." James pushed his glasses up his nose. "I think mum said Dumbledore might stop by as well."

Lily was too busy processing all of that to be embarrassed of her slacked jaw. James looked over at her and chuckled. "I thought we were going to spend the night sneaking Firewhiskey and stopping Sirius from sliding down the banisters."

"Nah, after what happened last year, Sirius opted to spend New Year's with Remus and Peter in London, where he's expected to get into trouble. My parents didn't say anything to him of course, he can do no wrong in their eyes, but they didn't try and stop him either so…"

"What happened last year?"

James shook his head. "I'd rather not say." Lily was shuffling through endless possibilities as James pulled open the front door. What had been simple and elegant earlier that week was now elegant and festive. The banister was draped with tinsel and garland and someone had charmed the number '1978' to glow magnificently in the middle of the room. Then there were the guests who were spilling out of the room off to the left, and all seemed trying to force their way inside, all the while looking absolutely exquisite, and, as James had promised, ancient.

"That's the ballroom." James explained. Lily nodded dumbly and tried to remember if she had noticed a ballroom before. Though, the presence of one didn't surprise her.

"Lily!" Grace Potter walked up to Lily wearing long, shimmering purple robes. Her thin grey hair was twisted up into an elegant bun and she had one necklace with a golden gem at the bottom, tangled in a web of gold.

Lily met Grace halfway and felt completely at ease to have the older woman wrap her thin arms around her as though she had known Lily for her entire life. Grace pulled away, leaving her hand on Lily's shoulder and looked her up and down. "You look marvelous, dear. That color really brings out your eyes." She grinned and then pulled Lily in for another hug.

"Thank you." Lily was a bit surprised now.

"Alright, mum." James intervened and put a hand on his mother's shoulder. "It's still a bit early for you to be this friendly."

"Don't be insinuating anything, young man." Grace said, reaching up and brushing James' hair down. "And did you even _try_ to comb your hair?"

"What's the point?" James pushed her hands away from his face. "We both know that it's not going to do anything. You're just asking because Aunt Lucille said something, didn't she."

"Your dad's sister is a wonderful person." Was all Grace said in response. She then turned around and called for her husband, who excused himself from the couple he was talking to and started towards his family and Lily.

"Lily," He reached out for her hand. "We're very pleased that you decided to join us in welcoming in the New Year."

"Of course, I'm very glad to be here."

"It's good to have some fresh blood around." Charles smiled. After a few more minutes of polite talk, the elderly Potter's excused themselves and went to greet the next guest that had arrived.

"So," James and Lily squeezed behind a few people loitering in the doorway and made their way over to the drink table. "Who would you like to meet first?"

Then next few hours were a blur. James introduced her to anyone that she looked at for more than a few seconds. She met the Minister and his wife, which she thought would be the highlight of her evening until she met Aurors Alastor Moody and Dorcas Meadowes. Both of them were in their mid-forties and had a hard look in their eyes that gave Lily a moment of pause. They didn't look like they were particularly enjoying themselves.

James didn't seem to notice though as he walked up and shook Moody's hand, gave Meadowes a hug and then introduced them both to Lily. She also noticed the change in them when James was there; they were both fond of him, she could tell.

"This is a good friend of mine," James said, making a grandiose gesture in her direction. "Lily Evans, top of our class. At most subjects."

"Had to add the most, didn't you?" Meadowes asked, reaching out to shake her hand. "It's nice to meet you, Lily." She nodded when James responded to her jibe at him.

"Well, I don't want Moody here to think I'm slacking off too much in school. I'm sure my parents tell him enough stories as it is. "

Moody reached for Lily's hand next. "Didn't think you much cared what I thought anymore." He looked at James with an intensity that was unfamiliar to Lily. She had to admire James a bit when he didn't shrivel into a tiny ball on the floor and start crying. Lily was about to admit to breaking her mother's china teapot (even though Moody wasn't even looking at her) when James finally spoke up.

"Things have changed." He let a loud breath out his nose and fidgeted slightly. "Things aren't getting cleaned up as fast as we all thought they were going to."

Moody smiled, which shocked Lily. "I could use you." He put a hand on James' shoulder. "July first, I want you in my office. Understand?"

"Yes, sir."

"We are at a party, Alastor." Meadowes reminded her co-worker. "The boys supposed to be enjoying himself."

"We can all enjoy ourselves when the sick bastard is in prison." He looked at Lily and snapped, "I apologize for my language."

"And I'll apologize for his temper." Meadowes raised her brows.

"As a Muggleborn, I appreciate your anger, sir." Lily said. She had liked Alastor Moody before for what she read in the papers and what people told her about him, but she liked him even more now. He was intense, but intense was good. "There are too many people in positions of power that just don't give a damn."

Moody nodded at her, and she felt like a kid in a candy store. She had gotten his approval.

"Speak of the bloody devil." Meadowes muttered. "Hullo, Minister." James turned his head and smirked, and Lily thought Moody might have smiled a bit as well.

"Good evening, Dorcas. Alastor." He nodded at the both of them. "James, Lily." Lily tried to keep her cool, but the minister of magic had remembered her name. She didn't really care if she agreed with his politics, she still felt important that he had _remembered her name. _"Mind if I have a word with the two of you?" He was talking to his Aurors again.

"As I've already had to remind Moody once," Meadowes sighed. "We're at a party. We're all dressed up and we're supposed to be drinking too much and dancing. Not talking about work."

The minister looked at Moody now. "You heard the lady." He muttered, picking up a glass of champagne from the table next to him. The minister nodded and walked away.

"Well, Dorcas," Moody grumbled, downing the champagne and offering her his hand. "You wanna dance?"

"I thought you'd never ask." She grinned.

"That's because I wasn't going to." He turned to Lily before Docras could drag him towards the middle of the room. "You seem like you've got a good head on your shoulders." Then to James. "Maybe you should bring her along." And then they were gone.

James started walking towards one of the open windows before Lily had a chance to ask him any questions. It was quieter by the window, and a cool breeze came through, making Lily shiver. "Moody is…"

"Intense?" James offered, turning his head to smile at her.

"He seems to like you."

"Yeah." James sighed. "He seems to think my dad's already taught me everything I need to know."

"About being an Auror?"

"About the game. He'll teach me how to be an Auror, but the political side of it all… Well, I have been watching my dad play that game for a long time now."

"And you want to be an Auror?" She asked, remembering what Moody had said about James changing his mind.

"I've got to do something useful, haven't I? Being an Auror seems like the obvious choice."

"Makes sense." Lily nodded. She had been thinking along the same lines recently. Becoming an Auror would give her power to help those in similar situations as her, and those who were being attacked for being 'blood traitors.' Lily wasn't surprised that James felt the way he did, he was never one to sit back and let others fix problems. "What were you going to do though?"

"Not become my father." James grinned. "Not that there's anything wrong with him, he's great. I just didn't want to follow in his footsteps. I wanted to play Quidditch." Lily smiled and nodded her head.

"Of course you did."

"Yeah, well, looks like I'll only be playing for fun after school."

"Maybe you can get on a team after Voldemort is captured." Lily shrugged. "I don't know how the how scouting thing works with Quidditch, but you're really good."

"I could do that." James grinned again at her compliment. "But I get invested rather easily. If I become an Auror, like I plan, then I'm going to _become_ an Auror. Quidditch won't be a priority anymore and catching bad people will be my new sport." He tugged at the sleeves of his dress robes and then leant over to rest his arms against the windowsill. "What about you? What do you want to do after school?"

"I want to fight too." Lily shrugged, also leaning against the window sill. "And like you said, becoming an Auror seems like the obvious choice."

They were quiet after that, both of them looking out at the stars and the forest behind the manor. It was all so quiet and peaceful, contrasting rather sharply with the lively music and dancing that was going on inside the house, and then there was James and Lily standing in between it all.

"I like you." James said quietly, startling Lily out of her thoughts of the future.

She twisted her fingers and nodded. "So you've been saying."

"No," James shook his head and pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose. "I mean, yes, I fancy you, but I like you too."

"It's that time of night!" Grace Potter's voice boomed through the room and James and Lily both turned around to see her standing in the middle of the staircase with Charles at her side. "Only one minute to midnight, so I suggest you go and find your spouse or your family right about now."

"I didn't realize it was so late." James said, looking down at his watch.

"I like you too." Lily said, ignoring both previous comments. She put a hand on James'. "I'm glad we're friends." James flipped his hand over and gave Lily's a squeeze.

"Thirty seconds!"

"I'm glad we're friends too." Then he ran a hand through his hair and cocked his head to the side. "Though I'd be glad if we were more than friends as well." Lily laughed and swatted him on the shoulder. But there it was again, that growing feeling. She noticed it this time and froze, her hand still in his.

"Alright, time for the countdown!" Grace called, waving her wand so a large set of red and gold numbers appeared at her right. "Ten! Nine!" Everyone started chanting with her and James swiped two glasses of champagne from a nearby table. "Six! Five!" He handed one to Lily and then picked up her hand again. "Two! One!" Cheers of 'Happy New Year' rang out across the room and Lily and James clinked glasses.

"To a year of endless possibilities." James said, then he tipped back his glass and Lily found herself staring at him. Endless possibilities. That sounded nice. Before she could over think it too much, or talk herself out of it, she stood up on her tiptoes and pressed her lips to his cheek. He had still been drinking from his glass and choked a bit.

"I'm sorry." Lily said, unable to stop herself from smiling.

"Don't apologize," James stammered, coughing to clear his windpipe. "I just wasn't prepared for that." He banged his fist against his chest and his face turned red, though Lily thought he was more embarrassed than suffering from a lack of oxygen. He stopped coughing and stared across the room for a moment. Before she could ask him if he was alright, he took a deep breath, turned towards her and pulled her in for a hug. Lily laughed and reached her arm out to set her glass of champagne on the windowsill before returning the hug. James kissed the top of her head.

"Happy New Year, Lils."

"Happy New Year, James."

* * *

**As always, reviews would be lovely. **


	6. Chapter 6

**Date Six**

Location: Gryffindor Tower, Hogwarts, Scotland

Time: 1:58 am

Coming to the conclusion that she might have trace amount of feelings for James didn't surprise Lily all that much. They had been spending a fair amount of time together and he was always flattering her and making her laugh, who wouldn't start to feel something? A Delak, that's who. At least, that's what she told herself.

She had seen him on the train and he had invited her to sit with him and the other Marauders, but Lily had declined, opting to sit with her friends instead. It wasn't so much because she didn't want to sit with James, because she did, it was because she didn't want to have to explain to her friends why she had chosen to sit with James instead of them. She may have come to terms with liking James a bit more than a friend, but she wasn't ready to let anyone else know that. She hadn't even told her mother, though she had a sneaking suspicion that her mother didn't need telling.

It was about a week into term and Professor McGonagall had partnered her and James together for some class project that was going to take about a month and involve a lot of out of class work. She had smiled at James in class, but now she was getting nervous. She had been making sure that there hadn't been a lot of one on one time between them.

She hadn't been avoiding James, there was no way for her to do that. He sat across from her every day at breakfast and next to her at lunch, and squeezed himself in between her and Mary the last three dinners. No one seemed to mind, or question, his sudden appearance in Lily's life, not even Lily herself. It just made sense that he should be there, wherever he was.

Maybe that's why she wasn't surprised to see him lounging on the couch in front of the fireplace when she decided that she couldn't sleep at two o'clock on a Friday night.

She stood at the base of the stairs for a few moments and just watched him. He had his arms tucked behind his head and he was watching the dying fire lick at the last remaining log. She wasn't close enough to really see his face, but she knew what expression he wore. The same look that had been on his face when he had been talking with her about becoming an auror as they stood by the window at his parent's ball. He had been wearing that expression a lot lately.

He pulled his arms up over his head and stretched, Lily imagined his shirt was getting pulled up by his arms, revealing a few inches of his torso. She sighed quietly and wished that she had the nerve to walk over and lay down next to him. Though, she knew that a lack of courage wasn't the only thing keeping her at bay. She wanted to be sure, and not because she didn't really know if she liked him or not, but because she knew that he had no doubt in his mind and she didn't want to make light of that. She wanted to be as sure as he was, which meant that she couldn't be embarrassed of her feelings for him when she finally acted on them.

So instead of doing what she wanted, she did what mates did.

"Couldn't sleep?" She asked in a hushed tone as she took the last step off the staircase and made her way towards him. He jumped at the sudden sound of her voice, hushed or not, and almost fell off the couch.

"Shit, Evans." James stood up, one hand over his heart and the other in his hair.

"I'm sorry." Lily pressed her lips together to keep from laughing.

"I don't believe you." He fell back on to the couch, sitting this time, and Lily joined him, tucking her legs up to her side.

"I didn't mean to frighten you."

James nodded. "What are you doing up this late anyway?"

"Couldn't sleep." Lily repeated. "You?"

Nodding towards a book, he replied, "I was reading. I haven't managed to get up and go to my bed yet." He looked at the staircase. "It's so far away."

"You were just going to sleep on the couch then?" Lily asked, amused.

"No, the fire is dying. I would have been freezing. I was just waiting until I was so cold that I wouldn't have a choice." Lily shook her head and started picking at the slightly fringed hem of her t-shirt. They were both quiet, watching what was left of the fire. "Good luck today in Transfigurations, no?"

"Yes," Lily nodded. "The last time we did a project like this I was partnered with Michael Hendrick and ended up doing all the work while he and Maria Vans ate each other's faces." James laughed. "It wasn't funny." Lily was smiling anyway. "It was disgusting. Madam Prince kicked them out _three_ times before I told him that I could just handle the rest on my own."

"Well, I promise a much more productive working environment." Lily knew that he was thinking the same thing she was at the moment, something that involved the two of them getting kicked out of the library, he just didn't know that she was thinking it too. "Well," He grinned at her. "I promise to pull my weight anyhow."

"I'm not sure why she put us together though." Lily mused. "She normally doesn't put people with someone from their own house. And we're the Head Students."

"I think it's obvious, Lils."

"Oh?"

"She wants us to get kicked out the library." He lent his head towards her conspiratorially. "If you know what I mean."

"Are you suggesting that our Professor is scheming to get us together?"

"I know it sounds ludicrous, but I have this theory-" Lily started laughing and he started shaking his head. "Just hear me out." He said over her laughter. He pulled one of his legs onto the couch so that he could face her, threw one of his arms around the back of the couch, and put his other hand on her knee. "Are you listening now?"

"Are you still trying to tell me that Professor _McGonagall_ is trying to get us together?"

"It's not just Professor McGonagall." James said, shaking his head. "It's all of them." Lily, still grinning, raised her eyebrows and prompted him to explain. "Firstly, and perhaps most importantly, Dumbledore made me Head Boy. He had absolutely no good reason to do that. I get good grades, but other than that, I'm a terror. In class I talk without raising my hand, don't pay attention half the time, invent new games to pass the time in History of Magic, blow up people's cauldrons in Potions, openly mock Divination when Professor Edric is in earshot and to top it all off, I've probably received more detentions than anyone in recent history."

"So, because you're a bit of a nuisance at times, you think the only reason Dumbledore had for making you head boy is that he wants us to be together?"

"Yes." James nodded. His hand was still on her knee and she put hers on top of his.

"James, Dumbledore picked you because he knew that you would be good at it." She said kindly. "You may cause trouble at times, but you have this authority about you that makes people listen to you. And sure, you might have used your power to start a first year uprising if it had struck your fancy, but you're really not as bad as you think you are." James flipped his hand over and intertwined their fingers together, just like he had at the ball. He thought about what she said for a while and then shook his head.

"Alright, I know that I'm not a complete terror, but there are other people who deserved to be Head Boy a lot more than I did. People who had never gotten detention and who actually tried to get the position."

"That's true." Lily nodded. "The only possible explanation is that Dumbledore and McGonagall are making bets about us and in order to get ahead, Dumbledore made you Head Boy and now McGonagall's gone and made us partners. Obviously her moneys on some day soon."

"I think all the professors are in on it, Dumbledore and McGonagall are the only ones bending the rules." James added. Lily was looking down at their hands when James let out a colossal yawn.

"Time to call it a night?" Lily asked, pulling her hand away and starting to stand up.

"No." James pulled her back onto the couch. "I'm good."

"It's nearly three." Lily said, checking James' wristwatch.

"It doesn't matter. Tomorrows Saturday."

"That doesn't mean that we don't both have things to do. You've got Quidditch practice, and I'm tutoring a group of second years for Flitwick."

"What time?"

"Ten in the morning." Lily sighed, leaning back against James' arm that he still had draped over the back of the sofa. He started playing with strands of her hair and Lily pretended that she didn't notice. "I don't know why I didn't ask him to change it to eleven. I like to sleep in on Saturdays."

"Well, blow off the second years and I'll cancel my Quidditch practice." It was enticing, but they were already too close to cuddling for Lily to say yes to that.

"I think it's time for bed." She said, letting out a yawn of her own. James studied her face for a moment and then nodded.

"Alright." He stood up and offered her his hand. "But we'll get together tomorrow and work on our project or something."

"Or something." Lily agreed. They walked over to their respective staircases. "G'night, James."

"Wait," He spun around and smirked at her. "Better or worse?"

"This was a date too?" Lily grinned.

"'Course it was."

"Of course." Lily agreed. And then because it had become the answer, "Better." They turned away from each other and walked off towards their respective beds. Lily thought about how close they had been sitting next to each other, his ridiculous theory and his hand holding hers and smiled to herself. Maybe she hadn't only said it because she was supposed to, maybe there was something to that theory of his he had told her back during winter holiday. Her liking of him was only going up the more time they spent together.

And if that trend continued… She was going to be in pretty deep, fairly quickly.

* * *

**AN: A bit shrimpy, but the next one is longer so it all balances out. Right?**

**Reviews are like free shoes, totally awesome. :)**


	7. Chapter 7

**Date Seven**

Location: Greenhouse Four, Hogwarts Grounds, Scotland

Time: 3:42 pm

Lily was writing notes during Herbology, like the diligent student she tried to be, when a flying projectile hit her square on her forehead and bounced into her lap. Her first instinct was to look up, but she was in a glass-roofed building, it couldn't have fallen from the sky. With that possibility ruled out, she turned her head to look at her fellow students. Everyone was looking at Professor Sprout, attentively listening to her lecture on the pros and cons of different types of dirt. Well, mostly anyway attentively listening. She _was_ talking about dirt.

Lily frowned and picked up the small object that had struck her. It was a folded piece of parchment. A note most likely. She turned to look at Marlene, who was seated on the other side of the room today because she had wanted to sit with Benjy Fenwick, but she was making doe eyes at him, and not paying Lily any attention. She turned to Look at Mary, but the brunette was seated right next to Lily. If she had wanted to pass her a note, she wouldn't have thrown it at Lily's face. Plus, she looked as though she was only half conscious. Lily's frown deepened as she opened the note.

_Dirt. She's talking about dirt, Evans. Please distract me. _

The slanted writing made her smile and shook her head. Of course, it was from James. She and the girls hadn't passed notes since fifth year (aside from in History of Magic anyway.) She picked up her quill and wrote back:

**She seems to think that it's very important. And since we're all going to own large apothecaries when we graduate, I feel like this is vital information. Take notes.**

She took out her wand and sent the note back to James. He read it, smiled, and quickly wrote a response.

_I forgot about that requirement. My garden is going to be rather sad, seeing as how I've never managed to keep anything in this class alive for longer than a week. I really have the worst luck with this class. _

**Well, you can borrow things from my garden if you need to. Being named after a plant, I've got myself a rather green thumb. I'll have to ask you to stay away from my garden, on account of your bad luck, but I'll still share.**

_It would be most appreciated, thank you. _

_What are you doing after class?_

**Dinner?**

_Before that._

**Nothing. Why?**

_Would you like to go for a walk?_

**That depends. Would we be walking inside or outside?**

_Don't be ridiculous, Evans. Inside. I have no desire to freeze my limbs off._

**Then I **_**would**_** like to go for a walk.**

The bell ending class rang shortly after that, and James was soon at Lily's side. "You realize that your first note hit me in the face, yes?" She asked, raising a brow and smirking.

"I feel like I have to say that I did that on purpose, because I'm a chaser and all…" He grinned and raked a hand through his hair before shoving it in his pocket to protect it from the bitter January air. "I am sorry though."

Lily laughed. "As you should be. That tiny piece of paper could have taken my eye out."

"That would be a shame." James said. "You have such pretty eyes."

They were quiet until they reached the castle, having buried their faces in scarves to protect their noses from the bitter wind (or in Lily's case, to hide her blush.) When they were inside however, James led Lily down a corridor she had only used a handful of times and asked, quite out of the blue, "If you had to choose between the ability to read minds and the power to freeze time, which would you chose?"

"Freeze time." Lily said without hesitating. As she opened her mouth to ask why he had asked her, he spoke again.

"Wrong." Lily blanched.

"What do you mean, 'wrong?'"

"You chose wrong." He said, his smirk pulling up more on the right side. "Reading minds was something you could turn on and off, but you only had the power to freeze time, not to unfreeze it. So if you ever froze time, everyone would always be stuck in the exact moment that you froze them in, for eternity."

"Well, you didn't tell me any of that." Lily said, scrunching up her nose.

"You didn't ask." James shrugged.

"I hardly think that's fair. Besides, you never told me we were playing a game, I thought you were just asking me which I'd prefer, and given the choice between being able to read minds and being able to freeze time, I'd choose the latter."

"Fine, now you know." James said. "So would you like a million galleons, or to live to 150?"

"Well, what's the catch?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about." James pressed his lips together and slowly shook his head.

"_I_ have no idea what _you're _talking about." She corrected, but then, because he looked as though he was still waiting for her to answer, "I guess I'd prefer a long life to a million galleons."

"Wrong _again_." He sighed, looking extremely forlorn for her sake. "I guess both answers were wrong this time. The galleons were all made of chocolate, so there's a plus side there, but you'd have to live all 150 years alone in the middle of the woods."

"Alone?" Lily raised her brow. "That's not very nice. Why do I have to do that?"

"You chose wrong."

"I couldn't have friends visit me?"

"No."

"Not _anyone_?"

"It's against the rules." He said sadly, shaking his head. "Though," Lily looked up at him and saw a mischievous grin appearing on his face. "I've never held much store by the rules."

"You would visit me then?"

"Of course."

"Would I still live to 150?"

"Yes."

"Still wouldn't be worth it." She shook her head and James laughed. "Alright, your turn, would your rather shave your head once, or wear dresses for an entire month?"

James tapped the side of his jaw with his index finger and pondered her question for a moment. "I suppose I'd rather just shave my head."

"Wrong." Lily barked, jumping slightly with excitement. "If you shaved your head, your hair would never grow back."

"Damn." He sighed. "What would have happened if I picked the other one?"

"Oh," Lily bit her lip. "Everyone would have been very impressed with your legs I suppose. You would have been scouted by a modeling agent and made millions of non-chocolate galleons." James laughed again and slung an arm around Lily's shoulders, kissing the top of her head. They both paused after he had done it, not sure what to do.

Lily felt her stomach clench and she hoped that James, who still had his arm around her, couldn't hear (or feel) her heart racing. It was just a stupid peck on the top of her head, she shouldn't have been reacting this way. He had done it so easily though, without thinking about it. Just leant over and kissed her.

"Sorry." James muttered at length, neither sounding sorry or removing his arm from around her shoulders. They continued walking and Lily found herself getting more and more anxious with every step they took.

She fancied the stupid blighter, she knew she did, that's not what was causing this anxiety. It wasn't even how much she fancied him, which was a lot more than the little bit she had originally thought it was. Or maybe it was some combination of both and then something else that she couldn't quite place.

The growing feeling that she had first felt that day at the Leaky Cauldron was almost always there now, in some way or another. It was the butterflies in her stomach when she saw him smile, it was the tightness in her chest when she made him laugh, it was the sweatiness of her palms when he walked towards her with that playful look in his eyes, it was her stomach jumping to her throat whenever he said something nice to her. It was how she was always looking forward to seeing him, even when he had only gone down for Quidditch practice, she was always excited to see him when he got back. It was pathetic really, but she liked the growing feeling.

Walking down the corridor with his arm around her after he had just kissed her head (something that he had done before she kept reminding herself) had left her feeling a very strong urge to run in the opposite direction and she didn't really know why. Didn't she _want _a relationship with James?

Of course she did.

She took a deep breath and tried to swallow her more flighty urges. "Would you rather," James grin grew when she spoke and his hand squeezed her shoulder briefly. Niether of these action exactly helped the anxious feeling, but Lily pressed on anyway. "Have been sorted into Slytherin or have Puddlemere United lose every game you ever attended?"

"Ouch, Evans." James put a hand over her chest and grimaced. "Would I still get to be friends with all my mates?"

"I can't answer any questions until after you chose." Lily grinned, and stuck her nose in the air.

"Alright, alright," He took a deep breath and started chewing on his lip. The decision seemed to be really weighing on him and that's when Lily's anxious feeling finally dissipated. She threw back her head and laughed at the troubled look on his face. Her feelings for him might be changing rather quickly, and she might be fancying him more than she had anticipated, but he was… such a _dork_.

"James, dear," Lily reached up and squeezed the hand that was hanging off her shoulder. "It's just a game."

"I know," James said, still looking as though he were in deep contemplation. "But I either have to be a Slytherin or never go to my favorite teams games again. If I pick Slytherin, you're going to say that I'm not friend with the Marauders anymore, if I pick Puddlemere… well, that one is already horrible." He scrunched his nose together. "Alright, I'll pick the quidditch one. My friends are more important than Puddlemere winning. Don't tell them I said that though."

Lily had worked out that there was no right answer while playing this game, but she took pity on James just then. "Correct." She said with a smile. "You get to keep your friends _and_ you become manager of the team, after which they start winning."

James shot her a grin and shook his head. "Keep it up, Evans; I might not kiss the top of your head next time."

And that's when the anxious feeling came back.

* * *

**AN: Alright folks, we're winding down here. There are only two chapters left after this I believe. **

**(sing the following to the tune of Don't you (forget about me)) **

**Don't yoooooou, forget to review! **


	8. Chapter 8

**Date Eight**

Location: Library, Hogwarts, Scotland

Time: 4ish

"Your boyfriend's behind you." Lily was studying in the library, and found it only slightly concerning when she didn't question who Marlene was talking about. She still hadn't worked up the courage to tell her friends that she fancied James, though she had a new sneaking suspicion that _they_ didn't need telling either. They had eyes after all. "He's got flowers." Lily furrowed her brow. "And he looks upset." Lily turned around at this and saw an _extremely_ upset looking James Potter marching across the library with a bouquet of flowers. And he was heading in her direction.

"Well," Lily didn't quite know what to make of that. "I wish I had a camera."

"It is an interesting visual." Marlene agreed.

James reached their table and fell into a chair across from the two girls. Throwing the flowers on the table and crossing his arms over his chest, he set his frosty gaze on Lily. She had no idea what could have happened to make him look at her like he was, but she could feel herself getting defensive, and he hadn't even said anything yet. The last time they had been alone, was only a couple of days ago, when they were playing that stupid, 'would you rather' game, and nothing at all had transpired in the previous two days to warrant James looking at her like he was.

"Pretty flowers." Marlene reached out and rubbed one of the petals between her thumb and forefinger.

"You can have them." James snapped, still glaring at Lily. They hadn't had a good fight in a long while and if he kept this up, their peace streak was about to end.

"Thanks." Marlene picked them up and shoved her face in them, her wild blonde hair was the only part of her that was visible for a moment. "Daisies are my favorite." She looked up at James and then over at Lily. She let out a dramatic sigh and shrugged her shoulders. "Well, I'm not even going to make up an excuse as to why I'm leaving."

"Thanks." James snapped again. Marlene rolled her eyes, but packed up her things and walked off with her flowers.

"What's wrong?" Lily asked, leaning over the table. She would stay calm. She could do that. She could find out what the problem was before getting upset herself. He really did need to stop looking at her like that though.

"I'm angry."

"I've noticed." He didn't say anything. "Why are you angry? And where did the flowers come from?"

"You and I aren't dating." He said, arms still crossed over his chest like a petulant child. Lily raised her brows and then shook her head slowly.

"No." She said. "We're not dating."

"Cassidy Fisher just asked me out." Lily let out a sigh of relief. He wasn't going to start a fight with her, she wasn't going to ruin anything with her temper, he had just had an unpleasant experience with someone else.

"Wait," Lily put up her hands and tried not to laugh. "Cassidy gave you flowers?" James didn't find this amusing.

"I tried to give them back, but she wouldn't take the bloody things."

"Okay." Lily put a hand on top of his. "I realize that Cassidy isn't someone that you want to spend a lot of time with, but why did her asking you out make you this upset?"

"She said that _we_," He pulled his hand away from Lily to motion back and forth between the two of them, "Weren't dating." James said as though it was obvious. Lily found herself furrowing her brows again.

"But we aren't dating." Lily said, ask though explaining something to a child. A very small child. "Why would her saying that upset you? I know you like to pretend that we are, but you know we're not." James let out a heavy sigh and shifted in his chair.

"She tricked me!" James moved his hands to his hair and let his elbows fall to the table. "I was telling her as nicely as I could that I didn't want to go to Hogsmeade with her and then, somehow, I'm no longer saying that, and now, apparently, I have a date next Saturday, and it's not with you."

Lily, who did not like what she was hearing, tried her best to keep her face impassive. "Why do I get the feeling that you're blaming me for this?"

"I _am _blaming you for this." He was only leaning on one arm now, looking far more defeated than angry. "I hadn't asked you to Hogsmeade because we're mates now and we don't go on real dates. But if I had asked you, then I wouldn't have to go with Cassidy. I thought she fancied Sirius anyhow." His head dropped to the table.

"You don't have to go with Cassidy." Lily said, trying not to sound like she cared much either way. She didn't think she succeeded because 'Cassidy' came off her tongue sounding more like a swear word than some girl's name. Just her luck, James seemed to notice too. He picked his head up from the table and narrowed his eyes at her.

"Well," He ran a hand through his hair, leaving it stuck at the base. "I think I agreed to go with her. I can't stand her up."

"What do you mean, you_ think_ you agreed to go with her?"

"I mean, I'm not exactly sure what happened."

"Then tell her you don't want to go with her." Lily said, her anger at Cassidy trumping her desire to keep her feelings a secret. "Tell her you don't appreciate her trying to trick you into going on a date and that she's a cow for trying to do that to you." James stared at her, and the longer he did, the darker Lily's blush got.

"She'll just fumble my words up again." James shrugged at last. "Maybe I'll sneak away early or something. You could help me with that if you'd like." He gave her a pointed look, "Or maybe, I could go and tell Cassidy that you and I-"

"I'd be more than happy to help you sneak away if you're too spineless to have an actual conversation with the girl." Lily, who had been ignoring her textbook until this point, suddenly found the need to start reading at this exact moment. She picked one up and dove behind it.

"Or maybe I could go and tell Cassidy-"

"That you think she's swell but you'd rather not go on a date with her."

"Because I've already got myself a d-"

"James." Lily huffed, slamming her book onto the table, causing people around her to turn in their seats and send her nasty glares.

"Lily?" He asked, and honestly, he had much more patience than any one person had a right to. Lily bit the inside of her cheek and stared him down across the table. He knew, of course he knew that she fancied him, and he was just sitting there waiting for her to admit it.

"I have to go." Lily pushed her books into her bag in record speed and stood up. James stood up as well.

"I'll walk you."

"No. That's not necessary."

"Not necessary?" James asked, cracking a grin and sticking her with another one of his pointed looks. "You want to talk about things that are unnecessary?"

"No. I don't want to talk to you at all actually." She huffed, brushing a lock of hair behind her ear and starting towards the door.

"I've noticed." James had decided to follow, of course. "And why is that?"

"Don't be an arse." Was her response.

"I'm not being an arse, I'm just asking a question."

"Asking a question that you already know that answer to, makes you an arse." Lily muttered, picking up her pace. Her attempts to outrun him were futile of course, him being half a foot taller than her and all.

"Why the bloody hell do you think I know why you don't want to talk to me?" He asked, reaching out for her arm and spinning her around to face him.

"Well, I'm being rather obvious about the whole thing, aren't I?" Lily huffed, pulling at the hem of her sweater and avoiding eye contact with him at all costs. Her heart was racing and she would have very much liked to jump out the window at that point. She didn't really picture her telling James that she fancied him going anything like this. She had thought she would have a drink with him in the pub and let it slip, a coy smile on her lips and then he would kiss her and it would all be very nice. She didn't think it would happen because some stupid girl made her jealous, making everything an absolute mess.

"You're being rather obscure to tell you the truth." James muttered, pulling at his hair. "Can you just tell me what's going on?"

Lily let out a noise that she hoped conveyed her frustration. "I obviously don't want you to go on a date with Cassidy."

"Obviously." James agreed. "And why is that, Lily?"

"Cassidy is a cow!" Lily shouted, hoping that Cassidy wasn't within hearing distance. She wasn't fond of the girl, but she also didn't believe that she was a cow. She was a bit of a narcissist, sure, but not a cow. She took a deep breath and made her way towards a stone bench that was situated in front of a window. James stayed where he was, with his arms crossed, looking at a spot on the wall.

"Any other reason?" He asked quietly, shifting his eyes to her.

He was either really thick, or he just wanted to hear her say it. Either way, Lily wasn't going to tell him that she fancied him. Not yet, not now, not like this. She took a deep breath and started wringing her fingers. "I suppose I had assumed that you and I would be spending the day with each other. I know we didn't make definite plans, but-"

"Lily." He interrupted, walking over to where she was and leaning up against the wall. "I won't go to Hogsmeade with Cassidy. I'll go and find her and explain everything," Lily was about to ask what he meant by that, when he moved once again, this time to sit down next to her. He reached out and grabbed her hand, lacing their fingers together. She looked down at their hands and relished in the feeling of his warm hand engulfing hers. She also let herself breathe a sigh of relief about the whole Cassidy situation. When she looked back up at James, he was smiling at her.

"What?" He squeezed her hand.

"You're ridiculous, you know that?"

"I am not." Though she did feel rather ridiculous.

"Whatever, Evans." He shook his head. "I'll go and talk to Cassidy." He squeezed her hand again. "But on one condition."

Lily's stomach dropped. "No," She pushed her hair back behind her ear. "You already promised, you can't add conditions now- Would you stop grinning at me like that?"

"No, I don't think I will." He said, still grinning at her 'like that.' "And I can add conditions if I want, it's not like we have anything in writing. My condition is the following: You and I go to Hogsmeade together on a proper date."

And that's when everything fell into place for Lily. She fancied the James Potter sitting next to her, holding her hand, no matter how annoying he was. She fancied the boy that she'd played 'would you rather' with, the boy who had brought her to an old persons ball, the boy who had let her eat chocolate covered pretzels for dinner. She really _really_ fancied him. The last time they had actually gone on a 'proper date,' as he'd put it, she hadn't even _liked_ him. It was easy now, there was no pressure on either one of them to impress the other, or sweep them off their feet, they were friends and that was simple. Maybe it wouldn't be so simple if they went on a real date.

On the other hand however, she _really_ did not want James to go out with Cassidy Fisher. Not even if it was just one date and she knew he didn't want to go. Cassidy could try just about anything in the span of one date. She could slip him a love potion and make James forget all about Lily, or hold his hand, or something else completely awful.

Lily took a deep breath and then stood up. Pulling her hair over her shoulder, she started walking off down the corridor, unable to look at him as she said, "Alright. You and I will go on a proper date then."

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**AN: Alright, only one chapter left! I'm really proud of myself for updating this so frequently. I think I'm going to get this done in just a month. **

**Reviews are the bestest!**


	9. Chapter 9

**Date Nine**

Location: Gryffindor Common Room, Hogwarts, Scotland

Time: 11:56 am

Lily was standing just beside the bottom of the girl's staircase when James had walked down to meet her. She had let Mary do her hair, and Marlene and her had argued over what she was going to wear for almost two hours, but now she had her arms crossed over her chest and was determined to come off as nonchalant about the whole thing. Of course, her hair looked immaculate, and it was quite obvious that she had dressed up, but she didn't care and kept her lips pursed anyway.

James didn't seem to mind. He bounded down the stairs and made a show of slowing down when he saw her, running a hand through his hair and letting out a low whistle. "Merlin," He traced his fingers down her arm and then took hold of her hand. "You are looking especially fit today." He grinned and then leant towards her, placing a chaste peck on her cheek. "Shall we head out?"

Somehow, Lily had managed to keep her lips pursed during this whole exchange, not that James had done anything to show that he noticed in the slightest. It was more of a self-gratifying accomplishment, even though pursing her lips hadn't stopped her from nearly melting into a pool of mush when he kissed her cheek, or almost vomit up the family of butterflies that were currently residing in her stomach when he called her fit. She rolled her eyes at herself and let him lead her across the common room.

It wasn't that she was dead set against having a good time during this date, she just wanted to make sure that he knew that she wasn't going to put up with any funny business. He confirmed that her plan was working after they stepped out of the portrait hole and into the corridor.

"I get that this is sort of my last chance here." He said, squeezing her hand a little tighter. "That I'm not allowed to muck this up if I want to continue to date you." Lily opened her mouth to correct him, but he beat her to it. "And I know that technically, we aren't dating right now, even though we have been on multiple dates, real as well as fake." He ruffled his hair up. "I have a question for you. What are you going to do if I don't muck this up?"

"Don't muck it up and you'll find out."

"Just so we're clear," He chewed on the inside of his cheek for a moment before continuing. "You don't _want_ me to muck this date up, right?" Lily looked at him with wide eyes and thought it was utterly ridiculous and, more than slightly endearing, that he could still be this nervous around her. The longer she waited to answer, the faster his eyes started to dart about, and she could see a blush creeping up the base of his neck. Eventually he forced out a laugh and squeezed her hand. "Not sure yet?"

"I'd really rather you didn't muck it up." She said, to which James just grinned wider and squeezed her hand again. She squeezed his hand back, deciding just then that she no longer had to act as though she only thought of James as a friend, nor did she have to act as though he was going to be a completely different bloke at any moment. She fancied him, and it was all right for her to act accordingly. He had messed up, but that didn't mean that he was going to do it again. Well, she had no doubt that he was going to mess up again at one point or another, but probably not in the same way he had last time, and probably not today either.

When they finally reached the grounds, they were happy to find that there were carriages waiting to take the students to and from the village, and they wouldn't be forced to bare the frigid January air for too long. When they had climbed into one of the carriages, James asked her what her roommates had said when she had told them about the date.

Lily shrugged, reaching over and picking up James' hand that she had been forced to relinquish in order to climb in the vehicle. Since James usually did most of the hand grabbing, his eyes flashed quickly from their hands to her face, but Lily ignored this and answered his question. "Mary and Bianca squealed like twelve year olds, Arianna said something like, 'I think I've seen this episode already,' and Marlene was sort of annoyed."

"Annoyed?"

"Yes. She rolled her eyes and didn't speak to me for twenty minutes." James shifted in his seat uncomfortably for a moment before Lily realized what he was thinking. "She doesn't fancy you, though Bianca thought the same thing when she saw Marlene behaving like she was."

"Then why did she-"

"It doesn't matter." Lily said quickly, not having thought through the conversation that would follow her telling him how Marlene reacted beforehand. The truth was, Marlene had been under the impression that Lily and James had already been dating, she was frustrated with Lily before because Lily hadn't told her and then when Lily did tell her, she was annoyed that she had been wrong, and at Lily for being, 'difficult' was the word she used. Well, it's the word she used after a whole slew of other words. This was all information that was rather embarrassing on for both parties (mostly Lily) and rather left unsaid, for today anyhow. "Anyway," She looked out the window and noticed that it had started snowing. "What are we doing today?"

James let the previous conversation drop, which Lily was very grateful for, and said, "I was thinking that we'd grab a bite to eat first, seeing as how it's lunch time, and then we'll head over to Honeydukes or something."

"Sounds good."

"I thought so."

Lily twisted a piece of her hair around her index finger and cocked her head to the side. "Not to sound-" She stopped and shook her head. "What did Cassidy say- er, what did you say to her?"

"I told her the truth." He shrugged, turning his head so he could look out the window.

"And, just so we're both on the same page here," The carriage came to a stop and Lily pushed open the door. "What is the truth?" James' lip quirked up.

"I got a better offer." Lily's eyes went wide and she covered her mouth with her hand.

"You didn't say that to her." James shrugged. "James Potter," She thwacked him on the shoulder. "You didn't-"

"Of course I didn't!" He laughed. "You know I wouldn't do that."

"Then what did you say to her?"

"That both of us had been mistaken and I _did_ have a date already."

"Did she give you anymore flowers?" James rolled his eyes and threw his arm around Lily's shoulders.

"No. I didn't get any more flowers."

"I feel kind of bad." Lily said, wrapping her arm around his middle. "I didn't get you any flowers, and _I'm _the one on a date with you."

"Please don't get me flowers."

"Daisies your favorite?"

"Don't get me flowers."

"About a dozen of them."

"Evans."

"I think I'll put an Ever-Fresh charm on them too. Then you can keep them forever."

"You know what's pathetic?"

"You would keep them."

"I would keep them." He nodded. "We'd be sitting around our fireplace when we're about ninety or so and our great granddaughter, Margret-"

"Margret?"

"Yes, Margret, she'll ask us where they came from and why we've always had them. Then I'll have to tell her about your lovely sense of humor and-"

"If she's my great granddaughter, won't she already know about my sense of humor?"

"No, you're going to be a very crotchety old person."

"A 'get off my lawn' type?"

"Precisely."

"Good fun."

"Anyway, I'll have to tell her and then she'll think I'm a sap."

"Oh, I'm sure she'll know long before then." Lily said while laughing. "You sure have a wild imagination, between Margret and your theory about our Professor's betting on our love life… You could write a book."

They walked into the Three Broomsticks and James steered them towards the booth that they had sat at during their first date. Lily stayed seated while he went up to the bar and got them drinks and a plate of chips.

"When did you change your mind, anyway?" He asked, sliding into the booth and stuffing a few chips in him mouth.

"About what?" Lily asked. "I've always like chips and Butterbeer."

"Not about the food, Evans." He sighed, "When did you change your mind about me?"

"Oh." She looked around the pub and realized that this was a much closer setting to what she had originally wanted for this conversation. She picked up a chip and rolled it between her thumb and forefinger. "Pretty quickly, actually. I mean, you never let it be that we were just mates, but I realized I fancied you shortly after the ball."

"And why didn't you say anything?" He leant forward, holding his mug with both his hands and looking at her over the tops of his glasses.

Lily took a deep breath and rested her head against her shoulder. "Because you were so blood sure. And I didn't want to seem as though I was being a flip flopper or anything. Plus," She ducked her head now. "I was sort of embarrassed."

"Embarrassed?" He laughed. "You knew that I fancied you, what'd you have to be embarrassed about?"

"I don't have any good reasons." She shrugged. "But for years, everyone kept telling me, you included, that it was going to happen, that I was going to fall for you and that I should just give up already and go out with you and- Well, I didn't want them to be right. I didn't want _you_ to be right. I figured that I probably shouldn't tell you that I fancied you till I could tell Mary and Marlene without going red in the face or wanting to jump out a window."

James had sat quietly, nodding along until the end there. "The thought of admitting to your friends that you fancy me, made you want to jump out of a window?"

"Not literally." She said, trying not to laugh at the look on his face. "But you have to understand that I really hate being wrong."

"I do understand that." James said, then incredulously, "_Jump out of a window_?"

"Oh don't take it personally."

"How can I not take that personally?"

"Well, maybe if you hadn't spent the last four years embarrassing me, things would have happened differently."

"Right, of course." James then decided that it was time for a shift in the conversation. "My mum's rather miffed that she hasn't met your mother yet."

"I doubt it." Lily said doubtfully. "I can't imagine your mother miffed about anything."

"That's true." James agreed. "Though she came across slightly put-off in her letter."

"How did she run the D.M.L.E.? She's too nice."

"She can be rather frightening if she needs to be." James shrugged. "It's like a switch or something." They continued to talk about Grace Potter for a few more minutes before switching topics to upcoming Quidditch matches, the house elves new pasta dish, some nearby Hufflepuff's hair-du, whether they should get more food now or wait, how busy they thought Honeydukes was going to be, why Sirius was walking towards them, why Sirius had walked over to their table simply to steal the remainder of their chips without saying anything, and so on.

When the date ended, they took a carriage back up to the castle, walked the seven flights of stairs to the Gryffindor common room and then stood outside the portrait as their fellow students walked around them to get inside.

James leant up against the wall, and reached out one of his hands to tuck a strand of hair behind Lily's ear.

"So?" He asked, his hand dropping back down to his side.

"So?" Lily repeated.

"Better or worse than our second date?" He asked cheekily, cocking a brow. Lily pushed his shoulder with her free hand and laughed.

She squinted her eyes and shook her head, "I'd say it was much better." She reached out for his hand, and when she did he smiled widely and leant slightly towards her.

"Yeah," James nodded. "Me too. I could hardly get you to shut up about yourself last time."

"You're ridiculous." She muttered, squeezing his hand and taking a step closer to him.

"A bit, yeah." James agreed, also taking a step towards her. They were standing almost toe to toe now and Lily had already forgotten how to breathe. She looked up at him through her lashes and could count all the different colors in his hazel eyes. She brought a hand up to his shoulder and started to lean towards him when-

"Pardon me." Someone squeaked, bumping James' back to get through the porthole. James closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Lily could see that he was willing himself not to turn around and hex the blasted third year. What did the kid think he was doing anyway? Hadn't he heard of tact? She had been about to bloody kiss this dorky, messy-haired git in front of her, why did he think that running into James was a good idea?

Before the portrait swung closed again, the boy turned around, "Lights out is in five minutes." This time Lily caught sight of the boy's face and sighed. Caradoc Dearborn always had been a goody two-shoes, and a pain her her arse.

"We're the head students." Lily said with a tight smile, none too pleased that he had interrupted their moment. "We know when lights out is. But thank you Doc." The boy, now a bit red in the face at having been admonished by the Head Girl, spun back around and launched himself through the porthole.

"So," James said, taking a step back and giving Lily's hand another squeeze. "Do I get another date?"

"I'm not sure yet." Lily said, a smirk spreading across her face.

James' brow furrowed and he closed his eyes briefly before sputtering, "What do you mean you're not sure?"

Lily took a step closer to him and wrapped her arms around his neck. "I mean I want you to kiss me before I make any promises. No point in keeping you around if you're a rubbish kisser."

The grin that spread over James' face sent tingles all the way down to Lily's toes. "No point at all." His arms snaked around her middle and he pulled her person up against his own, leaning down so their foreheads were resting against one another's. "Quick question first."

"Yes?" Lily blushed when her voice sounded much more like a mouse than a human being. She coughed a bit and tried again. "What's your question?"

"Are you still of the opinion that this," He nodded down at the two of them wrapped up in each other. "Just isn't meant to be?"

Lily bit her lip to keep from laughing and tried to get a more serious expression on her face. "If you keep this up, I'm going to toss _you_ out a window."

"No you're not."

"Yes I am."

"No. I don't think you will."

"Probably not." She agreed.

"I'm going to kiss you now."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes."

"It's taking you a bloody long time."

"Just want to keep you on your toes."

"Careful, Potter. There's a window right behind you." James grinned and then closed the distance between them.

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**AN: And that's the end. I want to thank all of you who have reviewed, favorited, alerted, and supported this story. You all rock.**

**I've got another project in the works that I'm hoping to get up fairly soon, so maybe you want to put me on alert or something? Just a though.**

**Remember, reviews are what I live for. **


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